Two nights ago I thumbed through a magazine that I do quite a bit of work for at the news stand. I found three of my photographs that were credited as Author's Photos in support of story/photo packages. My situation is sticky in that I shot the stills while I was shooting video under a work for hire contract. Still, I believe I should have had the photographer's credit. My situation is very different from the linked story. I just felt like a little venting might make me feel better.

If your work for hire agreement states that you'l be credited than you have some room to have a pleasant conversation ("I'm sure this is just a mistake but...) if not then there isn't much you can do is there. The first time I shot production and promotion stills for a movie, and that type of work is always WFH, the work was credited to the photographer who started on the film and then left. Now he has the IMDB credit for the work I did.

About a month ago I found a guy advertising his services online as a fitness photographer using my photos. And actually photos from two other photographers in the fitness business I know. I immediately recognized their photos too.

The guy is a real scum bag with all kinds of web address advertising all kinds of photo services. Easy to recognize his own work from professional work, no question.

I immediately blitzed all of his many phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and as I recall it was late Saturday afternoon. I also did a DMCA take down notice on his web server provider. He took down my photos within two hours. I also notified both of the other photographers, one of whom reacted much as I did. The scum bag removed photos of both of the other photographers shortly thereafter.

The fitness business is a very small community and I notified all of the significant show producers and such in his geographic area as well as other photographers. I am pretty well known and have somewhat of a long reach in that industry. A few people kind of had run across the guy before and will be watching for him at events and such. He is no longer welcome.

Unfortunately he also promotes in other areas where I have no similar connect such as portraits and weddings, so his scamming may continue.

Although I doubt if this guy would present any difficulties, I am certain there would be an issue for Luminous Landscape to allow the posting of his name along with the accusations, true as they are. So with that said I will be reserved about it.

However, I would be happy to privately send the info to anyone who would like it. Just send me an e-mail to SecondFocus@mac.com. By the way, the guy is in Dallas.

This is really sad. I cannot imagine how people how people sleep at night or how they even imagine that they are not doing something wrong.

I saw a couple not long ago about their wedding, and they said that the previous 'photographer' brought along a whole portfolio of work, and freely admitted it wasn't his, but this was the kind of styles he was offering!!!!

As the groom was a policeman, he had some really strong words and threw him out.

I'm certain this sort of thing happens often. A few years ago I was grilling out on the back yard one evening. I heard the phone in the house ringing and ran inside to answer. It was someone asking about the price to acquire use rights for several images for a CD cover. I said it depends several factors, which I briefly explained. I then asked the person if we could talk in the morning because my dinner was about to burn. The person then said "Well, actually we've already used them on the CD cover". He explained that it wasn't by accident but they were now thinking twice since the CD was software that would be purchased by churches. Oh the irony. We exchanged information, I was paid a reasonable price, and that was that.

On another earlier occasion I found my images while browsing postcards in a national park. That would normally be a good thing, except I knew nothing about these. It turned out they'd been publishing these for five years before I found them. I ended up needing an attorney for that one. In the end I got what was left after paying attorney fees. It was a hassle but satisfying to have done something about it. Perhaps it saved someone else from the same fate.

Shouldn't people be getting smarter? The internet makes the world smaller and it's easy to find out what people are up to with a couple minutes of work.

Twenty years ago, I was introduced to a photographer that traveled overseas and had an impressive fashion book. Funny, the images he shot while in town did not look like those in his book. It turned out that he randomly pulled tears out of European magazines and passed them off as his own. Imagine if these people had actually put that same energy into developing their own style. Isn't it more satisfying to actually earn it or to just steal it?

Shouldn't people be getting smarter? The internet makes the world smaller and it's easy to find out what people are up to with a couple minutes of work...

Oh, no worries... these people are pretty smart... smarter than us, actually.

They know perfectly well that chances of getting caught are rather slim (although technologically possible), the chances of taken to court even slimmer, the chances of ultimately paying substantial fines approaching infinitesimal... you get the picture. It is like drug trafficking... for every anecdotal evidence of success (like in some posts above), there are thousands upon thousands of undetected, unpursued, or ultimately uncollectible cases, and they know it. If it takes us a couple of minutes to find them, it also takes them a couple of minutes to move on and find some other photographer's work to steal.